Not content with launching Firefox OS phones via Ebay in the UK and USA and via mobile networks in Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Poland, Germany and soon Hungary and Greece Mozilla have announced today that their Android web browser will come pre-installed on the latest batch of Kobo tablets – the Kobo Arc 7, Kobo Arc 7HD and the Kobo Arc 10HD, and also on the Gigabyte GSmart Simba SX1 smartphone.
The Kobo Arc range seems to be a decent range of tablets with the (rather predictably named) Arc 7HD seven inch tablet running with the following specifications:
Display 7″ 1920 x 1200 HD+ Display (323 ppi). Up to 1080p video playback.
Capacitive Touch-screen with 10 point multi-touch, edge-to-edge display.
Dimensions (W x H x D) 122 x 194 x 9.6 mm.
Weight 341 g.
Processor Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad-Core, 1.7 GHz.
Memory 1 GB DDR3L RAM.
Camera Front-facing 1.3 MP (720p) HD camera.
Audio Mono speaker, microphone, headphone jack with in-line microphone support.
Storage 16 GB. (Available storage space 12.9 GB), 32 GB. (Available storage space 27.3 GB)
Battery life 4200 mAh capacity.
Connectivity Wi Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0.
Ports Micro USB, Micro HDMI out, and 3.5mm headphone jack with in-line microphone support.
Operating system Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, Google Play Certified.
A little low on RAM but on a tablet designed primarily for use as an e-reader this certainly ticks a lot of wishlist boxes including great screen resolution. The spec’s really start to ramp up on the Arc 10HD but priced at £299.99 I’m not too sure how many people would go for it. The range is already available in the US and is trickling out in the UK at the moment with a planned release schedule for the rest of the world before Christmas.
The GSmart Simba SX1 will be available in Russia, Ukraine, EEU, Belarus and Taiwan from November, and rolled out globally from December 2013. It’s specifications look like this:
CPU 1.4GHz Dual-Core
Display 5” , 1280 x 720 pixels (HD)
Dimensions/ Weight 144 x 73 x 9.5 mm / 165g (with Battery)
Battery Li-ion 1900mAh
Dual-SIM
ROM 4GB
RAM 1GB
MicroSD, up to 32GB
Connectivity Wi-Fi802.11 b/g/n , Bluetooth 3.0
Network GSM / GPRS / EDGE / WCDMA/ HSPA / HSPA+ up to 21Mbps;Uplink up to 5.76Mbps
GPS GPS, AGPS
FM Radio
Camera 13MP with AF & LED Flash Light
Front Camera 2MP Front Camera
Operating System Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
So a decent mid-range phone, again with Firefox for android pre-loaded on it. Firefox for Android synchronizes with the Firefox desktop / laptop browser so you can use the same bookmarks and browser history and can have browser extensions as well.
Where will the Firefox strike next? Will Mozilla ever get a foothold in the States or the UK without a high-spec’d version of their phone? Do you use Firefox for Android? Let us know in the comments box below.
Source: Mozilla Blog